The present invention relates to messaging systems and, in particular, to a messaging system which selects communication parameters based on the communication device used to access the messaging system.
Voice messaging systems are common in today""s business community.
Most business organizations or enterprises make use of a private branch exchange (PBX) to direct a caller""s telephone call to the appropriate extension of the called party. If the called party is unable to answer the telephone call, the telephone call is forwarded to a voice messaging system, which allows the caller to leave a voice message in the mailbox assigned to the called party. Messages left for called parties within the business organization can be retrieved from memory by calling the voice messaging system using a telephone and entering appropriate commands via a touch-tone keypad. Retrieved messages can be played, forwarded or deleted. An example of a voice messaging system of this nature is the Series 6 sold by Mitel Corporation of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
In addition to voice messages, communications within business organizations are also stored in facsimile and text formats. In the past, separate messaging systems have been used to handle these different types of communications. Unfortunately, prior art messaging systems designed to handle one type of communication have not provided any means to interact with messaging systems handling other types of communications. This has required users to access each messaging system individually to retrieve messages and has required business organizations to maintain and manage multiple messaging systems separately. As a result, it has been necessary to establish separate accounts, address lists and message mailboxes in each messaging system for the various users in the business organizations.
More recently, attempts have been made to interconnect different messaging systems to provide access to different types of messages from a single point. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,636 to Irribarren discloses a system and method for voice mail systems and interactive voice response (IVR) systems. The Irribarren system includes a voice message system and a text message system integrated via a network, which coordinates the functions of each individual message system. A user may access messages stored in the voice message system and in the text message system via a single telephone call. Although this system allows access to different types of messages, the voice message and text message systems require separate management.
The current trend is to integrate these various messaging systems to allow users to access all types of communications once a connection is made to the messaging system. To that end, unified messaging systems have been developed to provide users access to virtually all of their communications. Messaging systems of this nature store all messages for entities within the enterprise at a common location. The entities may be individuals, groups, departments or any appropriate logical organizations. Users accessing the messaging system via a telephone, desktop computer or other communication device, have access to all of their messages regardless of message type and regardless of the type of communication device used to access the messaging system. Appropriate message translators such as text-to-speech (TTS) converters, speech-to-text (STT) converters, etc. are included to enable users to retrieve messages stored in formats not supported by the communication devices used to access the messaging system.
In today""s mobile world, users must often access messaging systems from different locations using different types of communication devices. For example, during travel a user may be required to access their messaging system using a cellular telephone, an air phone, a regular telephone, etc. Cellular telephones and air phones are often noisy and hence, when a user accesses their messaging system using a communication device of this nature, it is typically desired that the volume at which the messaging system plays back messages be loud. In fact, depending on the type of communication device used to access the messaging system, the user may have different preferences with respect to the volume and speed at which messages are to be played back as well as the type and order messages are played back.
Conventional messaging systems allow users to adjust message playback parameters. However, the message playback parameters must be adjusted by users each time the current message playback parameters do not suit the users+current calling needs. If a user is traveling and is frequently using different types of communication devices to access the messaging system, the user may be required to adjust the message playback parameters each time the messaging system is accessed. The end result is often user frustration.
Thus, there is a need for messaging systems that offer better management of message playback parameters.
The present invention relates to a messaging system which automatically selects message playback parameters based on the communication device used to access the messaging system. Examples of message playback parameters that are used when playing back a message to a user include volume, speed, order, and type.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a messaging system to store and retrieve messages for playback in response to input user commands that includes: memory to store user messages; preference records associated with users of said messaging system, each preference record being associated with a communication device used by a user to access said messaging system and including user preference data for message playback; and a messaging application responsive to incoming calls from users, said messaging application accessing certain of said preference records associated with a user calling said messaging system and playing back messages for that user stored in said memory in accordance with a selected one of said certain of said preference records.
Preferably, the selected one of the preference records is selected based on the communication device used by the user to call the messaging system. In a specific embodiment, the selected one of the preference records is selected based on caller line identification (CLI) data accompanying the call made to the messaging system using the communication device. Preferably, multiple preference records are associated with each user of the messaging system. One of the multiple preference records is designated as a default and is selected by the messaging application for message playback when no CLI data accompanies the call. The remaining multiple preference records are associated with selected CLI data.
In a preferred embodiment, each of the preference records includes a plurality of preference data fields. Each of the preference data fields stores a different parameter preference for message playback. In a specific embodiment, the preference data fields include a volume data field, a speed data field, a message type data field and a message order data field.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided in a messaging system which stores and retrieves messages for user playback in response in input commands, a method of playing back messages to a user accessing said messaging system using a communication device comprising the operations of: selecting message playback parameters based on the communication device used by said user to access said messaging system; and playing back messages to said user in accordance with the selected playback parameters.
In still yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided in a messaging system which stores and retrieves messages for user playback, a method of playing back messages to a user accessing said messaging system via a call comprising the operations of: examining said call to determine if caller line identification (CLI) data accompanies the call; selecting default message playback parameters and playing back messages to said user in accordance with the default message playback parameters when no CLI data accompanies said call; and selecting specific message playback parameters associated with said CLI data and playing back messages to said user in accordance with the specific message playback parameters when CLI data accompanies said call.
The present invention provides advantages in that the manner in which messages are played back to a user is dependent on the communication device used by the user to access the messaging system and is accordance with the user""s preferences for that communication device. In one embodiment, the message playback parameters are selected automatically based on CLI data provided to the messaging system by a private branch exchange (PBX).